Throughout the Marvel Universe and beyond, established characters like Spider-Man trade superhero monikers on a regular basis. For instance, Hank Pym has been Ant-Man, Giant-Man and Yellowjacket, to name a few. Mac Gargan has been Scorpion, Venom and even Spider-Man under Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers. And on one occasion, a villain primarily known for his relationship to Wolverine takes the name of one of Spider-Man's numerous aliases.
In the '90s Spider-Man storyline "Identity Crisis," took on multiple different aliases in order to investigate a murder that his Spider-Man persona had been accused of. These four personas -- Hornet, Dusk, Ricochet, and Prodigy -- would end up spinning off into their own monikers, assumed by other heroes and villains alike in a group called The Slingers. Starting in Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo's Sensational Spider-Man #27, the identity of Hornet was Peter's excuse to go all-out with technology, allowing Peter Parker to build technologically stunning equipment to fight crime. He had no idea that, some time down the line, Silas Burr, most well-known as the Wolverine villain Cyber, would later take the identity of Hornet for himself.
Created by Peter David and Sam Keith in Marvel Comics Presents #85, Silas Burr was a seemingly immortal man who might've been alive in the 1800s. Regardless of his true age, he fought in the Canadian Army alongside Logan after being sprung from jail in 1912 by Sabretooth. Burr ran the Devil's Brigade, of which Logan was a unit. In the days before the Weapon X experiments, Burr and Sabretooth would torment and exert control over Logan, with Burr dealing Logan the greatest beating of his life, returning the man to a feral, unstable state through manipulation.
Silas didn't become Cyber until after training Wolverine's son, Daken. Daken ended up betraying Silas, but didn't kill him under orders of the enigmatic figure known as Romulus. Romulus infused Cyber's body with adamantium, turning him into the monstrous warrior known as Cyber. Cyber would run the drug cartels of Madripoor, clashing with Wolverine and even Daken time and time again, serving as one of Logan's most persistent adversaries.
Silas was ultimately betrayed and killed by Daken yet again, only this time, the seemingly immortal Silas was sent to Hell. While in Hell, he met a demon. Silas convinced this demon that he could do better in life and redeem himself. The demon, when he ascended from Hell, took Silas with him. The demon, assuming the mantle of Black Marvel, wanted to reassemble the Slingers as a force for good, and he made Silas into the new Hornet. The story that followed, "The Slingers Return," took place in Peter David and Will Sliney's Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #8-13.
Now in Las Vegas, Black Marvel and the new Hornet started work as "superheroes" working for Silas Throne, who sent them out to steal food from a criminal competitor, Cassandra Mercury. Silas claimed the food was being hoarded, but the reality was that Mercury had turned her casinos into a temporary shelter for victims of HYDRA. When Hornet tried to steal the food, he was stopped by Las Vegas's current protector: the Scarlet Spider -- Ben Reilly.
While Hornet escaped, Reilly was soon joined by the previous Slingers, the former Ricochet, Dusk and Prodigy. The previous Hornet, Edward McDonough, had been killed in action by Wolverine, who at the time had been under the mind control of the Hand, with Elektra later decapitating the body so McDonough could never be revived through supernatural means. This meant that the Slingers knew that their friend was dead and felt sick that someone was tarnishing their dead friend's legacy.
While the former Slingers worked with Reilly to take down Silas at first, Scarlet Spider beat down Throne, and the new Hornet convinced the former Slingers to work with him to bring the Scarlet Spider to justice. To do this, they took Mercury hostage. Scarlet needed to work with Kaine, the former Scarlet Spider and fellow clone of Peter Parker, to take down the man impersonating Peter Parker's other superhero alias. During the fight, Black Marvel and Silas were revealed to be demonic entities from Hell. This terminated the alliance between the new Horner and the other Slingers.
However, Silas Burr escaped. It remains unknown if he will retain his identity as the Hornet and still try to "do good," or if he will turn out to be a villain once again.